Getting Started In Agro Research

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Definition

In
spite of the increased urbanization of the US, there are millions of acres of
land remaining in the agro economy. As an individual with a Master’s Degree or
PhD in Agro Research, there are many opportunities to work as a researcher,
project manager or project supervisor in fields related to how we use things we
grow in order to make use of them in unique and interesting ways. Some examples are antibiotics, vaccines, abiotic stress resistance, plant
and animal breeding, pest and pesticide resistant crops, and industrial fibers.
There are opportunities in Academia, Governmental Agencies, Corporations that
use grown products for fuel and in the Food and Beverage industry. Some of these opportunities involve a great
deal of field research and application; others are based in laboratories across
the world. Your purpose in the field of
Agro Business is to maximize the usage and variability of the products we
develop and grow.

Large Agro Research Employers
to Consider

Archer
Daniels Midlandis located in Decatur, Illinois and has 270
plants worldwide. It processes cereal
grains and oilseeds used in the food and beverage industry. They also market animal feed.

Monsanto, an
Agro business based in Creve-Coeur, Missouri, is the leading producer of
genetically-engineered seeds, selling 90 percent of the seeds in the US. It has a company beneath it called Agracetus
that produces Roundup Ready Soybean Seed for commercial use. Monsanto also markets bovine growth hormone.

ConAgrais
one of the biggest packaged food companies in the US. You’ll find its products in supermarkets,
restaurants and food service companies.
It is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cargillis
located in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota and was founded in 1865. It is the largest privately held company in
the US. It purchases, processes and
distributes grain and other agricultural commodities. It manufactures livestock feed, processed
foods and certain pharmaceuticals.

Other
Career Paths

Agro
Biotech. There
are numerous organizations and corporations that focus on biotechnology and its
relationship to agriculture. For
example, Pioneer
Hi-Bred, a Dupont Company, develops advanced plant genetics for world-wide
sale. There are a number of Asian
companies that offer positions in fields related to the making of certain
products and chemicals with Agro origins.

Academic
Agro programs.
There are a number of excellent programs around the United States that
focus on Agro Research and need faculty.
Some of the best are:

Any
one of these colleges and universities has opportunities for
academically-inclined postgraduates interested in basic research in agriculture
and agro-based processes.

Government
Agencies. There
are many government agencies related to Agro Research. The US Food and Drug Administration, which
evaluates the safety of food, has a series
of interviews on working in Food Science at the Agency. The Agricultural Research Service is
the principal scientificresearch
agency of the US Department of Agriculture. Homeland Security is another
option, helping keep our food supply safe and doing diagnostic work on tainted
food in cases of suspicious epidemics.

In
the corporate field, you may begin as a researcher in the R&D department of
the company. From there you can advance
to become a project manager or project supervisor in any one of the Research
and Development Departments of your company.
There are also jobs in sales of products created by the agro business
company you work for. If you work in
biofuel industries, you can be offered a job in production management or in
research and development.

Your
focus may be on biofuels, antibiotics, vaccines, crop enhancement, animal
foods, the production of commercial products from agricultural products or some
similar line of study.

About
2 million of the 20 million people employed in the Agro businesses work on a
farm. The remainder works in
laboratories with travel to the field to test different products on crops or
animals. You can work as a supervisor or
manager in Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Communications, Natural
Resources Communications, Parks and Recreation, Packaging, Horticulture, Food
Science, Fisheries and Wildlife, and Forestry.

As
a postgraduate, you would most likely have a job in management unless you like
research and want to do basic research.
To pursue basic research, you can stay in academia, take a government
job, or work for one of the largest businesses. If you work for a corporation,
you may manage a plant or a research laboratory that is studying your area of
interest.

According
to the American Farm Bureau, Food Scientists and Food Engineers are among jobs
in greatest demand currently and in the next several years. There will be about 57,000 jobs opened per
year to manage the 58,000 graduates. A
total of 32 percent of these openings will be in food science, food engineering
and related job specialties.

Finding Jobs in Agro
Business

You
can find jobs in Agro Business by applying to one of the major companies listed
above or applying to an agriculturally-based University or College. Agriculturalcareers.com
is a good portal for Agro Research positions.
You can also apply to firms specializing in Biodiesel and Bioethanol, if
those are of interest to you. There is a
job board at AgCareers.com
in which you can search for a job in Agro Business.

By
the time you graduate with a postgraduate degree in agriculture and related
sciences, you will have the bench skills to do basic research in Agro Science.
You have a management skill set to offer, and you have good communication and
writing skills. Your management skills
may be enhanced by taking some management courses for postgraduates at the University
you attend. Research needs strategy, so you should be able to come up with
ideas for experimentation, including how to design and implement a scientific
research project.

Should
you choose a career path in the corporate world, you may be hired directly as a
project manager or project supervisor. You might also be hired as a salesperson
or sales manager. You would oversee a
project or a group of people with the goal of increasing sales or improving
processes in the field or in the manufacturing division.

In
academia, you may receive a research position in which you will work in a
laboratory or in the field for a university. You could have a job position as a
field research assistant or a field research officer.

Opportunities
for travel vary, but you can expect that a career in Agro Business will have
you out in the fields in many cases, doing field site evaluations. Wages are along the lines of any PhD
scientist and can start as high as $50-$60,000 with room to increase your wages
rather rapidly.

This
career has a combination of bench science and field science that covers large
aspects of animal, plant and food science.
New developments in genetic engineering have created new niches for
those individuals interested in being on the cutting edge of Agro
Business.